03.23.10
Posted in News at 23:26 by nikki
I’m so much behind on updating…wow, now I can’t remember everything that’s been going on. Lot’s to do with a house full of dogs. I’ve always updated so much more when I have litters, I feel bad that the puppies owners don’t get to see or hear more this time. I fell again the other day and bruised my arms mostly so I was a bit sore for a few days and didn’t feel like updating or doing much after all the chores with the puppies. They are at such an age that they need to go outside often during the day and we have RAIN every single day all day long so it’s quite a bit of extra work. And here I thought this would be a good time of year to have a litter. Oh well, they are sweet puppies and so they make up for it with snuggles. I’m just finding that I don’t have so much time to individually train them as I had hoped to do. I’m trying my best but of course typical as ever when I need Rúnar home the most the place he works makes them start earlier and stay later and he also has the clicker course going on weekends so I’m pretty much on my own except a few hours in the evenings. My hands are not so good at the moment, eczema is really burning and itching and spreading from all the washing of my hands, so stack training wasn’t a priority. Needless to say it means I’m not getting good enough photos again for this litter and I’m sorry about that. Rúnar thinks stack photos are silly anyway and thinks we can spend the time for other things. Hehe Don’t blame him it is smarter to use time for letting the dogs play or learn something useful. He can’t understand why we emphasize so much on their structure. Truth be told I guess it isn’t all that important to the owners of the dogs. They have picked their puppies and know the parents and pedigree, the puppies are as they are and nothing we do can change that. I think I’m getting too sentimental these days, I’m learning we have to love them for what they are, not what we want them to be.
So the most important would be their train-ability, temperament and health. I’ve done my best to pick parents who I thought would be a good combination and all I can do is hope it was a good choice. I think there is a tendency to focus much too much on “show” and I have really cut down my interest in that the past few years, I think those who know me know that I do breed for type and structure as best I can but for me the breed itself, it’s genetic diversity and future possibilities for the outcome of my litters is more important to me. Although that said I am quite happy with these puppies in their structure and type. It’s just better to see when they are standing on their own or playing, I have found photos don’t give the proper story. As a friend of mine reminded me when she said they looked like they turned out in the rear but they only do that when I’m trying to make them pose on the table and they are trying their best to resist it and run or jump just as the camera snaps a photo. The camera has been so difficult lately that we haven’t been able to take any good photos even though there have been milliseconds where they look half decent on the table, that’s the exact times the flash is loading and not ready. I think also it might be a lack of muscle at the age I took the other stack photos because most take photos at 8 weeks so you have to take the two week age difference into consideration.
Tinni has gone to his new home which is so nice for him to finally get some personal attention and get to interact with the children and his new “dog brother” who I hear has welcomed Tinni very nicely. We’ve already seen photos of him in his new home and he is such a lucky dog. We will keep an eye on him in future because he is a co-own.
We are so excited that Tryggur will be going to Austria and will be trained as a search and rescue dog if all goes well. He was evaluated the other day by an old friend who has been training search and rescue for probably well over 20 years. He has border collies himself (had the first ISD to do search and rescue in Iceland way back in the late 1980′s) and gave Tryggur an awesome “critique” so we’re hoping he will live up to our expectations but in any case what is most important to us is that he is a happy family dog. He’ll have a wonderful family with two little girls to play with and a “dog brother” who is already 10 years old and is a search and rescue dog.
Vina is going to Germany and has a male dog “friend” as well and it sounds like a wonderful place where she will live. Tásla has a great family waiting excitedly for her and they have a nice farm with horses where she will be able to work and also a mixed breed female dog for her to play with. We are extremely happy with the homes fate has brought us for these guys and hopefully we’ll hear lots of news from them in future.
Speaking of news, great families and health we have heard that both Raggi and Rún have had health checkups and both have healthy eyes, elbows, hearts and Rún has had her hips done and they look good. I got the news that Rún has been to her first show and got a very good (despite her badly curled tail) so I couldn’t be happier with that, her critique was great. Raggi has started obedience competitions and is really doing awesome!
This week is a busy week because we have the annual general meeting of DIF and Rúnar has been asked to talk about our course and clicker training. Then on Friday we will take Tumi to Reykjavík to meet his hopeful owners. They live in Akureyri and are going to visit their children in Sweden over Easter and so they will go into Reykjavík (on route to the airport) and they want to meet Tumi to see if they will be taking him home with them when they get back after Easter. It’s a question of if they like him in person and if Tumi likes them. They sound like wonderful people and are very excited to meet him, they have been in close contact with us and are loving him from photos. So fingers crossed Tumi will melt their hearts as much in person. I don’t doubt that a bit…he is a real charmer just like his dad and honestly if we didn’t already have a male dog…it would have been hard to let him go. Well I also would have liked to keep pretty much all of them but Tumi is like a carbon copy of Klói. Hehehe
I did hear from my mom last night and unfortunately they have found 3 lumps in my step-father’s abdomen so it’s most likely the cancer is back. He is too weak to be operated on but we’ll find out more around the 29th when he has an appointment with a surgeon. My mom sounded good though.
Rúnar’s grandparent’s one little Pomeranian died the day before yesterday so there is some sadness in the family, he was around 8 years old. They have a little bitch too and she is quite depressed at losing her lifelong friend.
Many may have seen the eruption we have in Iceland at the moment on the news. It’s in a glacier we can see from where we live but we are far enough away that it doesn’t affect us at all. There were about 600 people evacuated from near by farms and houses. There are photos and videos in the Icelandic online newspaper mbl.is
We are getting prepared to do a puppy test on a litter here in Selfoss and apparently the television station wants to record some of it and talk about it with us. That is scary for me with my nerves but I’m trying not to think about it so much, we had promised to do this litter long before they were born and we’ll have fun doing it like always, just have to try to calm my nerves when talking to the journalists. That will be on the 31st of this month.
I guess that’s it for now. I’ll add some more photos in a new album and I’m thinking of just putting them on the page instead of thumbnails, see how that is. I heard about a slide show program and we’ll look into that although I really just want my old website back but first we need to find the time to work on it, so for now this will have to do.
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03.09.10
Posted in News at 17:09 by nikki
Guess I better write a few lines, I’ve been lazy at updating. I’ve updated photos off and on without putting any comments so I hope people realize that they can go to the photo albums and see new photos now and then without me commenting on the blog. I do miss the “update” section of the website where I could just put a link to what I’d done.
Anyway, what’s going on? Rúnar started another course on the weekend, unfortunately it wasn’t full and also a few didn’t show up who were registered so it was nice for those attending they got more one on one time…that’s never a bad thing. 
He came home exhausted after having a migraine on the first day and we had some wonderful people coming to pick out their puppy. I spent the whole day on high gear cleaning up since we didn’t expect anyone until after the weekend but it’s always nice when the place is clean and when you’re finished cleaning you feel better although exhausted. hehe Problem is it’s all dirty again an hour or two later!
The weather has been horrible, rain and wind every day and the pups are at a stage that they need to be out a portion of the day and need to be dried off each time they come in. They don’t like being outside too much in the cold and rain but Rúnar got a briliant idea and put the table in their play area so now they can hide from the rain a bit. They are so cute.
They can always have fun, silly goons! Me on the other hand am getting a bit pissed off at the weather. The grass is a mud pit…grrrr
So here is a photo of Tinni with his wonderful new owners! We are so happy that they picked him or should I say he picked them. It was quite strange not that I’m not used to my dogs intuition. They came to pick between Tryggur or Tinni and the family was split, the boys wanted Tryggur and the girls wanted Tinni. Well, I introduced them to both dogs and I kid you not Tinni went to the little girl and stayed with her all cuddling the whole time while Tryggur just thought he’d explore the house and really couldn’t care less there were people here to talk to him. I tried to explain to them the different temperaments and why I thought Tinni was a better fit for their family and I think Tinni did his part to convince them too because they ended up picking him. I was glad because I always say that if the puppy belongs to you there will be no doubt on the part of the puppy! I just love these two photos, I’m going to cherish them and look forward to seeing how Tinni’s life will be with this wonderful family.
What a beautiful contagious smile…warms the heart! Too bad Tinni was soooo tired, he’d just fallen asleep when we decided to pick him up to take the photos.
We have been talking to someone who is interested in Tryggur but it depended on if he was chosen or not and the fact that they came a couple days early to chose and picked Tinni meant that on Sunday we got a surprise visit from Brynhildur before Rúnar had to go to Reykjavík. She was asked by this friend of ours to come and take some photos of Tryggur if he was still available. Again the strangest thing, Tryggur was a different dog. He wouldn’t leave poor Brynhildur alone to take photos, climbing up on her arms and then deciding it might be neat to climb up on her back and legs since she was laying on the floor. She managed to get a photo or two but most were probably blurry because he was always in her face checking her out. Hehe This was funny to see after the way he had acted the day before. I never underestimate the sixth sense of a dog.
We won’t know right away if he has a home or not but we’re not worried, we know that he will find the right home if we are open to the energy he portrays when the right owner arrives or the energy we sense in emails or phone calls from those inquiring.
The fact that Rúnar was away ALL weekend is really playing a toll on my health though. I totally didn’t think this through. So much work and my disability is not really making this all easy to do on my own.
My hands are raw and itchy from the eczema and with the rain every day all day long it means my hands are never dry for long, I’m using creams at night but it’s not helping at all. I know it has to be the puppies, the soap and water (I only use hypoallergenic soap) or the pee soaked papers because I haven’t been cheating on gluten these days. Stress of course always a factor but I’m pretty sure my skin is just not meant to be cleaned so much.
I lost my balance last week and fell on top of the puppy pen right on my ribcage and it pushed in a couple before I managed to touch the ground with my feet again and stand up. Well, it wasn’t all that painful except right when it happened so I knew nothing was broken but the next few days I was having pains in my abdomen, shortness of breath and some pain in my chest area as well. I couldn’t not keep on working, lifting the puppies up from their playpen to let them out and then back in many times a day x 5 they are now around 3-4 kg. No weight lifting feat per se but it adds up and the bending is putting my back out. Again lacking sleep and this morning Rúnar had to start work an hour early which meant I was up at 5:30 cleaning, letting the pups out, feeding them, then again the whole thing at 8:00 which is their usual time. They thought the new time was just a bonus play session. They are such lively little guys, never a dull moment. I love their love of life but oh man it’s hard work for someone who isn’t fit for “work”, I think a job would be less work than this. I am feeling much like I did while Rúnar was in Seattle for a month except I’m ever so thankful when he comes home from work in the evenings!
I’m thinking that I’m going to have to rest well before I have the next litter. No doubt I won’t have too many more litters which is sad but at the same time I try to have well thought out litters and do my best with the puppies upbringing so not being able to do my best is making me feel like I’m doing a half hazard job, I’d like to be able to do so much more for them. Maybe I’ll be feeling better when Hófi has her litter and I’ll be less willing to throw in the towel by then because she does have to have a litter soon whether I’m up for it or not.
But all that said, I just thought I’d let my family keep up with the happenings. On the more positive note the pups are thriving and they are a load of fun when we have a few minutes to spend training them. We’ve done a few things already and a couple of them got to run on the wet grass yesterday tonight we will take the rest out to see how they like it. I’ve taken stack photos of them last night and will put them into the new album.
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03.03.10
Posted in News at 00:07 by nikki
My Mom didn’t have a birthday this year but I called her yesterday to wish her a happy pretend birthday. It’s always nice to hear her voice and she sounds like she is doing really well.
I know I should have updated more often but things have been quite busy around here and just keep getting busier with these little guys getting into more mischief every day. As far as we know the puppies might be sold, possibly there is one male left but we’ll know that pretty soon. I’ve gotten a bunch of calls lately and emails and I hate to say that I’m getting really picky and I don’t want my puppies just going anywhere, not that I ever have but I’m finding myself thinking that each call is not the right owner. They should get the homes that fate has picked out for them but I’m sure that fate expects me to do some investigations and make some choices none the less. I’m hoping that I get a “feeling” when the right ones come along and I think that has happened for the ones that are already promised.
Birta’s face looks horrible these days, she keeps scratching the sores and they open up again and bleed. There is skin missing now that will probably take a while to heal and no doubt she will have scars. It appears to be the same as a friend of mine’s dogs got once (each at a different time) and she said it was due to bacteria and happened when there were stressful changes going on in her home. Her one bitch who had it on her muzzle had scars for the rest of her life and the other one only had the blood blisters on her ears and so didn’t get scarred. The only thing we can think is that perhaps at the moment Birta’s immune system was a little bit weakened from stress or something, there is quite a bit of stress in the house when there are newborn puppies whether we like to believe it or not. A drop in immunity for short periods can happen with all humans and dogs and no doubt the bacteria got in there when the pups were scratching and biting her with their dirty little sharp nails, despite me trying to keep their feet clean they are always walking in their own excrement on the papers, no matter how spotless the playpen is most of the time there are the times during the night or day that I get there too late to clean up the mess. Birta started scratching and made it worse and so it spread quickly. None of the other dogs likes the pups scratching at them but Birta seemed to enjoy the attention. It’s just so sad now because we have to try to keep her away from the puppies, poor Birta so wants to play with them, we let them follow her around but don’t allow them to play around her face these days. She is taking some antibiotics and they seem to be helping a little (if she could stop opening the scabs when they are just about to be better), she seems to scratch more when Rúnar cleans the wounds, the stuff we bought to clean is not supposed to sting or anything but no doubt just the fact that Rúnar is touching the sores makes them a bit itchy.
I think I know the feeling, my eczema is not so good these days either and once you start scratching it’s hard to stop!
Puppies now get to go outside a few times a day. Rúnar set up their fencing yesterday after work and hopefully it will make cleaning a little bit easier and also help teach them at the same time to let us know when they need out. We are starting to put them out to do their business as often as we can. Poor babies came in tonight from the freezing rain, they were not amused with that but they were only out for a few minutes and got to come in when they were finished, and were dried off when they came back in. The problem with being an Icelandic sheepdog in Iceland is you have to get used to every possible type of weather in the same day. Frost and cold this morning, then 6 celcius for parts of the day, freezing rain in the evening and then back to big huge snowflakes for their last outing before bed.
Here’s a few photos from the past few days and I will put some in a new album as well, possibly tomorrow if I can get around to it.
We had a wonderful visit from Rúnar’s sister and her whole family. The puppies had some great socialization with great kids and although they slept through most of it they did get to chew on the boys fingers for a little bit. Tumi seemed to think he belonged to the two boys it was so cute.
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